The locality should be reported with detail of State (or territory), county, township, and distance and direction from the nearest post-office, railway station, or country road. In addition the name of any contiguous stream, hill, bluff, or other remarkable natural feature should be given. The name of the owner of the land is of temporary value, as it is liable to frequent changes. The site or station should be particularly described with reference to its natural characteristics and geological history. When petroglyphs are in numbers and groups, their relation to each other to the points of the compass or to topographical features, should be noted, if possible, by an accurate survey, otherwise by numeration and sketching.
The following details should be carefully noted: The direction of the face of the rock; the presence of probable trails and gaps which may have been used in shortening distances in travel; localities of mounds and caves, if any, in the vicinity; ancient camping grounds, indicated by fragments of pottery, flint chips or other refuse; existence of aboriginal relics, particularly flints which may have been used in pecking (these may be found at the base of the rocks upon which petroglyphs occur); the presence of small mortar-holes which may have served in the preparation of colors.
With reference to pictographs on other objects than rock it is important to report the material upon which they appear and the implements ascertained to be used in their execution examples of which are given in other parts of this work.
With reference to all kinds of pictographs, it should be remembered that mere descriptions without graphic representations are of little value. Probable age and origin and traditions relating to them should be ascertained. Their interpretation by natives of the locality who themselves make pictographs or who belong to people who have lately made pictographs is most valuable, especially in reference to such designs as may be either conventional, religious, or connected with lines of gesture-signs.
LIST OF WORKS AND AUTHORS CITED.
The object of this alphabetical list is to permit convenient reference to authorities without either deforming the pages of the present work by footnotes or cumbering the text with more or less abbreviated indications of editions, volumes, and pages, as well as titles and names, which in some cases would have required many repetitions. The list is by no means intended as a bibliography of the subject, nor even as a statement of the printed and MS. works actually studied and consulted by the present writer in the preparation of his copy. The details and niceties of bibliographic description are not attempted, the titles being abbreviated, except in a few instances where they are believed to be of special interest. The purpose is to include only the works which have been actually quoted or cited in the text, and, indeed, not all of those, as it was deemed unnecessary to transfer to the list some well-known works of which there are no confusing numbers of editions. When a publication is cited in the text but once, sufficient reference is sometimes made at the place of citation. When it would seem that the reference should be more particular the work is mentioned in the text, generally by the name of the author, followed by an italic letter of the alphabet in a parenthesis, which letter is repeated in the same form under the author’s name in the alphabetical list followed by mention of the edition from which the citation was taken, the number of the volume when there is more than one volume of that edition, and the page; also a reference, when needed, to the illustration reproduced or described.
Example: When the voluminous official publication of Schoolcraft is first quoted on p. [35], the reference is to p. 351 of his first volume, and the name “Schoolcraft” is followed by (a). On turning to that name in the list there appears under it a note of the work and the letter (a) is followed by “I, p. 351.” The references to this author are so many that all the letters of the alphabet are successively employed—indeed, some of them do duty several times, as several references in the text are to the same page or plate. The references to this single author would therefore have required at least thirty footnotes, or corresponding words in the text, instead of thirty italic letters divided between the several places of citation.
The abbreviation and simplicity of the plan is shown where there are many editions of the work cited. One of the most troublesome for reference of all publications is that of the Travels, etc., of Lewis and Clarke. The letter (a) after those names on p. [419], repeated under the same names in the list, refers to p. 66 of the edition specified.
When the italic letter in parenthesis precedes the title of a work in the list, reference is made to that work as a whole without specific quotation. So also when no such italic letter appears. Occasionally the title and imprint of a magazine or other continuous publication appears in the list without note of volume and page. This occurs where the authority is noted elsewhere, generally more than once, with only curt reference to the serial publication, and is intended to avoid repetition.